Letters of Jenny Marx 1858
Source: MECW Volume 40, p. 571;
First published: in Marx and Engels, Works, Moscow, 1962.
My darling Karl,
I'm sorry I haven’t anything better to send you than Sch[’...] Koller’s letter; I kept it back yesterday but maybe you ought to see it after all.
I hope that you will reach some definite point of fact with Friedländer; nothing much is ever to be got out of a German newspaper and it’s beyond me how you could ask the enormous rate of £1 10/- for more than one article, especially since they have a correspondent for their regular business; they certainly can’t want more than an enjolivement. The most that can be extracted from the Presse, as an average maximum, will be £2 — don’t delude yourself on that score. Engels is sure to say ‘you'll be able to make at least £10 a week out of it’; though such delusions may be very agreeable at the time, they are often doomed to disappointment in the event.
The course of the revolution in Prussia tickles me tremendously; particularly the ‘ships, sails, masts and [waves]’ speech made by liquor Prince Smith on his Baltic estate, and the rapturous applause it received. And on top of that the Kölnische Zeitung’s transports over von der Heydt, and the admiration evinced even by the Presse for the energy and determination shown by the democratic press in Berlin??!!
The girls would have written to you long ago, but little Jenny declared that she detested the idea of what was simply a private letter being subjected to threefold censorship. Hence her silence.
Karl dear, it’s frightful that I should have to bother you amidst all your other tribulations; but, with Easter upon us, the fellows are growing rabid. Can’t you manage to raise something, if only, for Withers. They are the worst....
The others are better — they can still be staved off for a while. I went to see Miss Morton yesterday and explained matters to her.
Your
Jenny